Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Annette Bongiorno, accused of
helping her ex-boss, Bernard Madoff, run a multibillion-dollar
Ponzi scheme, asked a federal judge to free her from pretrial
house arrest, saying there’s no risk she will flee

Bongiorno, who was released on $3 million bail in January
2011, called her confinement “punitive” and argued that the
government consented to the release of Madoff’s brother, Peter,
on bond without house arrest or electronic monitoring after he
pleaded guilty to federal charges, according to a filing in
federal court in Manhattan.

Bongiorno, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges,
resides in Manhasset on New York’s Long Island, and has a curfew
of 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. from Wednesday through Sunday, Diane
Ferrone, one of her lawyers said.

“Continued house arrest is punitive and completely
unnecessary to secure Ms. Bongiorno’s appearance at trial,”
Diane Ferrone, one of Bongiorno’s lawyers, said today in a phone
interview.

“She has been fully compliant with the terms of her bail
and there have been zero infractions,” Ferrone said. “Given
the government’s consent to Peter Madoff’s release on bail
without home confinement, we hope that the government will
realize that Ms. Bongiorno should be treated the same.”

Department Store

Since November 2011, Bongiorno has been working at a part-time job at a major department store, Ferrone said. Bongiorno
and her husband’s assets have been reduced to $100,000 while the
government has restrained all of her other assets.

“The government has consistently taken the position that
it would not consent to a modification of her bail conditions so
long as Ms. Bongiorno refused to turn over all funds available
in the one bank account which the government has, to date, been
unable to identify and restrain,” Ferrone and two other defense
lawyers, Roland Riopelle and Maurice Sercarz, said in a filing
with U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan, who is
presiding over the case.

Bongiorno is among five people facing charges of helping
Madoff defraud investors of billions of dollars. Prosecutors
have argued that Bongiorno is likely to flee. Bernard Madoff,
who admitted masterminding the scheme, is serving a 150-year
sentence in a North Carolina federal prison.

The case is U.S. v. O’Hara, 10-cr-228, U.S. District Court,
Southern District of New York (Manhattan).